Having completed the first
space shuttle docking with the International Space Station late last
night, Discovery's astronauts will go to sleep at 8:50 a.m. Central
time to rest up for a space walk late tonight to install a pair of cranes
and other gear to the exterior of the orbital complex.

Commander Kent Rominger completed
a textbook rendezvous and docking with the station that Mission Control
said would set the standard for future ISS assembly flights. Contact
between Discovery and the station occurred right on time at 11:24 p.m.
Central time Friday.

Once the two spacecraft were
solidly mated together at 11:39 p.m., the astronauts performed leak
and pressurization checks, then opened the hatch to Pressurized Mating
Adapter 2, attached to the Unity module. Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa
and Valery Tokarev temporarily stowed docking targets and lights and
checked hatch seals in the narrow passageway.

Rominger and Pilot Rick Husband
removed and stowed four electronics boxes used to supply power to the
docking ports around the Unity module, clearing the sides of the passageway
into Unity for easy transfer of some 3,600 pounds of equipment and supplies.
The briefcase-sized boxes will be kept in storage until the end of the
next station assembly flight on STS-101 in December, when they will
be reinstalled to prepare for the arrival of the U.S. Laboratory module,
Destiny, next spring.

Mission Specialists Tammy Jernigan
and Dan Barry spent the rest of the morning checking the tools they
will use on their space walk, which is scheduled to begin shortly after
10 p.m. Central time. They also checked out their emergency rescue backpacks
and reviewed their space walk procedures one last time.

The astronauts will be awakened
at 4:50 p.m. today to begin final preparations for the 6 ½ hour
excursion into Discovery's cargo bay. With Mission Specialist Ellen
Ochoa operating the shuttle's robot arm to maneuver Jernigan up toward
the space station modules, and Julie Payette acting as the spacewalk
choreographer from Discovery's aft flight deck, Barry and Jernigan will
move the two cranes from a payload bay cargo support structure to locations
on the outside of the station. One crane is U.S.-built and the other
is Russian-built to help move large modular components from one module
to another during ISS assembly. Next, they will move two portable foot
restraints from the cargo carrier to the mating adapter to which the
Zarya and Unity modules are attached. Then, they'll move three bags
containing handrails and tools for future space walkers to the outside
of Unity. If time permits, the space walkers also will install a thermal
cover on a Unity trunnion pin, inspect some peeling paint on Zarya,
and survey one of two Early Communications System antennas on the starboard
side of Unity.

The space walkers are scheduled
to reenter the hatch about 4 a.m. Central time Sunday.

Meanwhile, all systems aboard
the Discovery / ISS space complex continue to work well as the two craft
orbit 240 statute miles above the Earth's surface.

The next STS-96 mission status
report will be issued at approximately 6 p.m. Central time or as events
warrant.